04th September

Wearable art! Morley student wins prestigious prize designing an eye-catching dress made of glass

jmonblat

A Morley student has jointly won the Contemporary Glass Society’s Graduate Prize for a wearable dress sewn with coloured glass. The annual prize attracts entries from graduates from across British universities and colleges.

Lu Shi created three wearable glass dresses whilst studying for a BTEC certificate in Art and Design in Glass at Morley’s North Kensington Centre For Skills. Lu Shi combined the BTEC course with completing third year studying fashion with knitwear at UAL Central St Martins. In August as she was awarded a high distinction for her BTEC course and received news about winning the Graduate Prize. Lu Shi said “ I am delighted to win this prestigious glass-making award. It is amazing to have my glass dress-making recognised.”

A remarkable creative journey

Lu Shi attended a few glass-making workshops when she enrolled in the glassmaking BTEC at Morley in September 2023.

Lu was first inspired by the work of previous Morley student who years earlier had designed a glass dress which was for display and couldn’t actually be worn. She set herself a challenge of creating a wearable garment made of glass. Lu said “I’d been trying to experiment the techniques and the patterns that I used for my BA Fashion collection….I did a lot of research, experiments and drawings during the whole process. I had to make it workable and make sure that the model can fit it on.”

Her winning creative approach came with an unexpected breakthrough – when a prototype dress design smashed into pieces on the floor.

“The dress accidentally shattered. But after the accident I started to create purposely with smaller broken glass pieces which were more flexible.”

Lu blended her dress-making design know-how with her new glass-making skills to crochet the glass. The pieces were assembled together by carefully drilling holes in each glass piece which were crocheted together.

“It’s really easy to break if the gap between each piece is too small and as it is a long dress, it needs to move in the right way and not move too much or otherwise it made a very big ticking noise.”

“That’s why I combined crochet with glass pieces because the process crochet is adjustable for the model and you can make like glass buttons and crochet – so you can fit it size”

A dress made of glasss

Lu was supported throughout the project by her creative tutors at North Kensington. “My tutors, they’re amazing and also very professional. Maria also really encouraged me to enter the award!”

Senior lecturer in glassmaking Maria Zuleta said:

“Lu Shi learned and applied a wide range of contemporary glass skills during the one year BTEC course. Her determination and creativity in making a wearable dress made of glass is impressive. This award is a wonderful achievement.”

Lu Shi finished three dresses on the course which were modelled at the end of year catwalk fashion show at Central Saint Martins College in May.

“I am really proud of myself. When I started my BTEC Level 3 in Morley, I targeted myself to make one glass garment out of class. But in the end I managed to make three garments out of glass, but also created a lot of spares that I can use to make accessories or bags or shoes.”

Lu Shi now plans to continue her professional career combining her love for fashion with her new passion for creative glass-making. She hopes to return to Morley at some point in the future.